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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

How I Got My Agent: Part One

I’ve written this post a hundred times over the last few
years, but unfortunately for you, I never wrote anything down any of those
other ninety-nine times, so if my inner content editor calls it quits and I ramble
a lot, you’ll have to forgive me. (Holy run-on sentence, Batman!) I’ll do my
best to stick to the most important details, but I make no promises.

As many of you know, I started querying Steve in mid-November,
and my first query went to Kate. She’d been at the top of my to-query
list for a long time--literally, in the top spot--since she’d requested so many of my previous
manuscripts and I’d enjoyed working with her on blog stuff.

The Partial Request A week later, she requested the first five chapters. I sent them off and
promptly forgot about it. I knew she generally took around two months to
respond, so I wasn’t holding my breath.

I sent more queries, got more requests. Inevitably, those
requests turned into rejections. (Once you’ve queried as many manuscripts as I
have, you kind of expect it.) But the rejections were different this time. The
feedback was all over the place. Some agents loved the character but not the concept. Some loved the concept but not the character. But they all said
something like, “Your writing is spectacular” (that’s actually a direct quote
from one of Steve's rejections), and with the exception of one or two of them, they
all wanted to see my next project.

The Full Request Fast-forward to the end of January. It had now been a little
more than two months since Kate had requested a partial, and since I knew that’s
usually her self-imposed deadline for responding to requested manuscripts, I
decided to check in. I didn’t hear from her for a few days, but then I did. She
said she was loving Steve so far--well, she didn’t call him Steve, but I’m sure
she would have if she’d known his nickname--and asked to read the rest.

This was epic. This was enormous. Kate had requested two partials
from me in the past (well, three, if you count Bob’s original and his revision
as separate partials), but they’d never turned into fulls. I sent it off and
tried to forget about it. This time, it didn’t work so well.

The Follow Fast-forward to mid-March. I logged on to Twitter late one
morning and noticed I had a new follower. It was Daphne Unfeasible. I almost
fell out of my chair. Then I noticed she’d tweeted me about the manuscript.
She’d just picked up on the FRANKENSTEIN allusions and thought they were pretty
cool. I tweeted her back and tried to act casual, but on the inside, I was freaking
out.

I was a bundle of nerves for the rest of the week. I knew
she was getting ready for the book fair in Bologna, but during another Twitter exchange,
she mentioned she’d have something to me before she left on Friday. I assumed
she meant a kind rejection or maybe a revise-and-resubmit. That’s what I told
myself over and over: “Kate’s not going to offer. She’s just going to tell you
your writing’s good. Kate’s not going to offer. She’s just going to tell you
your writing’s good.”

The E-mail First thing Friday morning, I checked my e-mail. Nothing. I
decided to leave my inbox open so I could glance at it every time I wandered
past (read: stalked by) the computer. Still nothing. Then, a little before
noon, I noticed I had a new e-mail. It was from Kate.

I sat down in front of the computer. I repeated my mantra a
few more times: “Kate’s not going to offer. She’s just going to tell you your
writing’s good.” Then I opened the e-mail. It went something like this:

“I’m leaving for Bologna
in a few hours, but I don’t want to do this long distance, and I don’t want to
wait.”

But I guess I’m going to make you wait, because this post is
already way too long:) Look for part two tomorrow! (And if you haven’t already
entered my celebratory contest, don’t forget to check that out!)

Congratulations!!! This is really, really exciting!! Thanks for sharing this process & experience -it's sort of how I envision feeling -but I'm not sure I would stay as calm! Way to go!! Enjoy this moment to the fullest!

I know, S. Kyle Davis. And I'm sorry! This post was just getting so long, and I didn't know what to cut!

Suzi, it was a tough wait, but since it turned out all right, I don't feel too bad:) And the nicknames are all random, although Steve's turned out not to be. I needed a random nickname for one of the major characters in the manuscript, and I thought, "Why not just use Steve again?" :)